Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ERRATA: AN ECLOGUE, by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ERRATA: AN ECLOGUE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: This text is not what it should be
Last Line: Until the masterpiece is ... Pulped!
Alternate Author Name(s): Dobson, Austin
Subject(s): Books; Reading


Author

THIS text is not what it should be.
There are some strange mistakes I see
I must have missed. For who, right witted,
Would dream of putting 'filled' for 'fitted'?
Or 'light' for 'tight'? Or 'sleep' for 'steep'?
-- Such things would make the angels weep.

Publisher

That is so. Still they do occur
To the most proved artificer.
You must have failed to cross your 't's':
GENIUS is prone to that disease!

Author

True. (And sometimes, by accident,
The blunder betters what was meant!)
But tell me. What is my position?
Correction? In a new edition?
-- Those 'new editions' have a knack,
Unluckily, of holding back...

Publisher

That is because men take more pains
To feed their bodies than their brains;
Or else because they really care
For little save the lighter fare;
And then -- though this is poor relief --
The life of modern books is brief.
-- We'll paste in an 'Errata' slip...

Author

Which none will look at but to skip.
No; the misfortune must be gulped,
Until the masterpiece is ... pulped!





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